w Jackson obeyed with alacrity.

Armed with the stick, Mr. Badger crept upstairs, rather astonished by
his bound boy's noisy breathing, and, entering the darkened chamber,
brought the stick down smartly on the astonished sleeper.

In about two minutes Mrs. Badger and Andrew, standing at the foot of the
stairs, were astonished by the noise of a terrible conflict in the
little attic chamber, as if two men were wrestling.

There was the sound of a heavy body flung on the floor, and the voice of
Mr. Badger was heard shouting:

"Help! help! murder!"

"The young villain's killing your father!" exclaimed the astonished Mrs.
Badger. "Go up and help him!"

"I don't dare to," said Andrew, pale as a sheet.

"Then I will!" said his mother, and she hurried upstairs, only to be met
by her husband, who was literally tumbled downstairs by the occupant of
the attic chamber.

Husband and wife fell together in a heap, and Andrew Jackson uttered a
yell of dismay.

In all the confidence of assured victory, Mr. Nathan Badger, seeing the
dim outline of a figure upon the bed, had brought down his stick upon it
with emphasis.

"I'll l'arn you!" he muttered in audible accents.

It was a rude awakening for Tom Tapley, the tramp, who was sleeping as
peacefully as a child.

The first blow aroused him, but left him in a state of bewilderment, so
that he merely shrank from the descending stick without any particular
idea of what had happened to him.

"Didn't feel it, did yer?" exclaimed Mr. Badger. "Well, I'll see if I
can't make yer feel it!" and he brought down the stick for the second
time with considerably increased vigor.

By this time Tom Tapley was awake. By this time also he thoroughly
understood the situation or thought he did. He had been found out, and
the farmer had undertaken to give him a lesson.

"That depends on whether you're stronger than I am," thought Tom, and he
sprang from the bed and threw himself upon the astonished farmer.

Nathan Badger was almost paralyzed by the thought that Bill Benton, his
hired boy, was absolutely daring enough to resist his lawful master. He
was even more astounded by Bill's extraordinary strength. Why, as the
boy grappled with him, he actually felt powerless. He was crushed to the
floor, and, with the boy's knee upon his breast, struggled in vain to
get up. It was so dark that he had not yet discovered that his
antagonist was a man and not a boy.

Nathan Badger had heard that ins